Why might a lawyer use Excel?

Whilst the subject of this post might sound like a "why did the lawyer... " joke, I'd genuinely appreciate any suggestions or examples as to why a commercial lawyer (as opposed to a 'criminal lawyer') might want to use Excel.

I'm developing an 'Excel for commercial lawyers' course and want to build it around genuine scenarios that all or most commercial lawyers can relate to.

Examples I've found so far include:
- A business partnership is disolved, and the lawyer is asked to explore how the assets and debts will be apportioned amongst the partners.
- A client is so happy that he pays the law firm an extra

Re: Why might a lawyer use Excel?

Not being a commercial lawyer, I'm not sure that I'm familiar with the full range of work a commercial lawyer would do.

However, in my business we do a lot of investment analyses and if, for example, one of your clients was involved in making a decision as to the worth of an investment, then it is usual to do some form of discounted cash flow analysis to obtain the comparative present values of competing investment options.

The New South Wales Treasury has investment guidelines based on discounted cash flow analysis that might help. Click here for a copy.

Hope this helps. E-mail me at jchawkless@hawkless.com.au if you need more information, want to discuss further, or if you would like a copy of a typical Excel spreadsheet that we use.